[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, we're obviously beginning a brand new series on the 23rd psalm. Going to be taking those six verses over the next six weeks and just exploring them verse by verse. And we'll be looking into that. It's probably one of the most comforting psalms ever written. I've done hundreds and hundreds of funerals in my career in ministry, and I can tell you it's probably the most often quoted verse at that time. It's probably the most often printed verse in the funeral form of the little brochures that they hand out. It's just a psalm that constantly, consistently and continuously brings great comfort because there's so much in that psalm as David is literally describing a relationship that he has with God that's available to all of us. What I love about it is David was an older man when he wrote the 23rd psalm. He was already king and had been king for some time. But David never lost touch with where he came from. He was a shepherd boy when God anointed him to be king. And so David goes back and he recounts and relates to his experiences as a child to a shepherd's boy, the lessons that he learned, the life that he lived. He never forgot those things. And he brought them into his leadership as king, as he led the great nation of Israel. Israel was important to the Bible then, was important to God then. It's important to God now. We watch all of the events that are going on in Israel, as I told you a week or so ago when we talked about end times, that all of the prophecy is pointing to that little sliver of land called Israel, that God's eye is on his people. And I think it's important this morning, before I bring the message that we pause for a moment to pray for the protection of Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem. Would you join me in prayer, Father? We lift up our hearts this morning for your people and we pray for Israel, that you would protect them, that you would guard them, that you would guide them. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. You've told us in your word to pray specifically for Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem. And we lift them up to you. Now, Father, we ask that you'll speak to us through the inspired writing of your psalmist, David. Help us to draw something from the message this morning that will make us better equipped to love our families, to serve our fellow man, and to make a difference in business as we go out into this week. Bless our time together, Father, and we ask this all in Christ's name. Amen.
As I said, David was talking about God as being a shepherd. In fact, in John, chapter ten, there's this corresponding New Testament passage where Jesus even refers to himself as such. And there's so much we can learn about the character of God, care of God for us, when we understand the value of him being our shepherd. Now, you might find it interesting to note the most common metaphor that the bible uses to describe you and I. The metaphor is sheep. We're sheep. Psalm 100. Were his people the sheep of his pasture. Now, I know that sounds sweet and endearing to think of yourself as a sheep, but can I tell you, when you understand really what a sheep is, it's not so comforting or enduring.
Do you realize a sheep is the dumbest animal on the face of the earth? Of all the animals you can train, you cannot train a sheep. There's no such thing as trained sheep. So sheep are very dumb animals. Not only are sheep very dumb animals, sheep are very dependent animals. A sheep will graze off the ground around it unless it's moved to greener pastures. It'll just stay right where it is. A sheep, if it ever falls over and rolls over on its back, it becomes what is called cast. Cast. The sheep is on its back. Did you know a sheep cannot right itself? It will die with those four legs pointed toward heaven. If some brother doesn't come along and roll that puppy over, it becomes caste. Those sheep are dependent, so they are dumb and they are dependent. And sheep get dirty. Now, a sheep by nature hates to get dirty, unlike a pig. A pig loves to wallow in the mud. Not a sheep. A sheep hates to get dirty. But it is inevitable that a sheep will get dirty. It will collect parasites. So the sheep has to be dealt with all the time because it is dirty. And the fourth thing I would tell you about a sheep that makes them not so enduring to us when you think about it. Instead, it makes us much more humble to consider. That's the metaphor most used to describe us, is that sheep are defenseless. Defenseless. They only have one instinct, and that is flight. They do not have the instinct of fight. Now, what you will find is there are a lot of teams, sports teams called the Rams. The rams. But you don't find too many called the fighting sheep.
Sheep does not strike the fear in the heart of anyone. If you're ever walking across a field up in the mountains and you see sheep, you're not prone to want to run. Now you might have that effect if you see a mountain lion, a bear, that's a little different experience. But you don't run from a sheep. You know, what are they going to do? Right? I'll just roll it over on its back and it'll lay there till Jesus comes. So the point is they are defenseless, they are dependent, they get dirty and they are dumb. And yet for some reason, God chose to call us sheep. And I think it's probably, when you think about your life, maybe some of your friends and family members, it's pretty appropriate, wouldn't you say? The Bible says, all we, like sheep have gone astray and God has gathered every one of them to himself. So we're going to be looking at this relationship between the shepherd, our heavenly Father, and between us, as David described it in that beautiful psalm. What I encourage you to do is over the course of these next few weeks, is to commit this psalm to memory. I think it will bless you. If you do, you'll be able to go back and recount it many times, if you will. The Bible says, your word, God, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God? And so we're going to begin this morning with psalm 23, verse one. Why don't we say it together out loud? Are you ready? Psalm 23, one. Let's quote it. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. What a beautiful, wonderful verse. And with that in mind, I want to talk about our shepherd as he provides for us the shepherds provision. The Lord. David said, the Lord. Now, it's interesting that he describes his shepherd as being the Lord, not a lord, the Lord. Now the reason that was important, because at that time, the egyptian empire had over 360 gods that they served. Like the Canaanites, they were polytheistic. They believed in many gods. They accepted all gods. And so when David was talking about the good shepherd, when he was talking about this shepherd that guards him and governs him, he was saying, this shepherd is the lord. The Lord. Now when the Bible was translated into the english language, commissioned by King James in about 1611, it's gone through multiple revisions contemporizing the language to make it more understandable. But when it was originally translated into the english language, back in that day, they had lords and ladies, but we don't have lords and ladies now. They still recognize such in England, but we don't have that here in America. We have leaders, we have bosses, we have presidents, but we don't have kings. We don't have lords and ladies. So when you read the word lord, you have to understand in an american concept of that would be the leader, the boss, who is large and in charge, who is the Lord. And so David was saying, the one who is supremely in charge of my life, my shepherd, my lord is Jesus Christ. It is God. And he said, the Lord is. And I love the wording of that because it means he's in present tense. He is my shepherd. He is. He will always be. He is, he always has been. He is, he will be tomorrow. He is whatever you need him to be. He is. He's ever present in our life. He is immutable and he is unchangeable. So David said, the Lord is. And then he said, my, my uses that monosyllable, my. My personal savior, my personal shepherd. And I love that. Because God does not love just all of us, though. He does. He loves each one of us. We just sing about the fact that he knows my name and he does. The Lord, David said, is my shepherd. I know him personally. I don't have a secondhand faith or a commercial faith. I know him, and he is my shepherd. As a shepherd, he guides, he feeds, he is, in the greek language, he is poimain. He is the shepherd. Now, it's interesting if you're in leadership in your business, if you're in leadership in life, I'm an under shepherd here at our church. And there's three words that are used to describe a leader. There are three words that are used to describe an under shepherd in the Bible, and one is poimain is a shepherd. A shepherd has the responsibility to care for those in his charge, those in her charge. So you lead, you feed, you guide, you take care of sheep. One of the things we do in preparing a series is we try to assess where people are in life. What do you think our church is struggling with? What do you think society needs to hear? And we try to evaluate that because God's word speaks to every. So we want to be anchored to the rock, geared to the times. We want to be culturally relevant. The Bible is the most relevant book in the world, and we do great disjustice to the teaching of it. When we make the most relevant book irrelevant, the Bible says concerning itself, it is alive. It is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. So the Bible speaks to matters that pertain to us even today. And so the Bible is living. It is rhema. It is the living word of God. So we try to assess, what do you think people need to hear? What do you think they're struggling with? Sometimes it's a swing and a miss, but I always rely on the fact that if it is God's word, true, then the Holy Spirit has the ability to take God's word as it is and apply it to people wherever they are. And so that's the takeaway that I hope everyone receives. But the responsibility we have is to lead, guide, feed the sheep, the people that we have been placed as overseers. So you have this word, Poimain. Then you have the second word that is given to describe leaders, particularly under shepherds. In the Bible, not only poimain, but you have episcopos. I said overseer a moment ago. That's exactly what the word implies, overseer. Epi means to over Scopus, is to see like a scope on a rifle. So episcopos is to oversee as a leader. It doesn't mean you're supposed to do everything, but as a leader, you're supposed to see that everything gets done. You see the difference? So episcopos means I oversee. You're an overseer. You make sure things happen on your job. You're evaluated based on that, if you have that responsibility. So you lead, guide, feed the people, and you oversee the responsibility. The third word is presbuteros. Presbuteros. We get the word Presbyterian from that word. It has the idea of being elder or mature. It has nothing to do with age. You can be a young person, but be very mature. You can be very ahead of yourself, ahead of your years. You can be an old soul that they're called. Sometimes it just means you are more mature for your age and where you are in that station of life. So it means as a leader, we are to be sober in our thinking. We are to be responsible. We are to be the adults in the room. We are to be mature. And that's part of what goes into being an under shepherd and being an effective leader. And when David was describing God, he said, he's all of the above. God is all of the above. He is wonderful at providing and he's wonderful at overseeing, and he's wonderful at offering this wonderful, incredible counsel. And he can be depended on. He is my shepherd. The second verse I wanted to give you this morning for our thinking is in John ten, verse 14. And listen to what Jesus said. I am the good shepherd. And when you look at that, in the Greek, good is Kalos. It means he is good at what he does. And also in the Greek, it is Agathos, which means I am morally good. So God is saying, I am good at what I do. And while I'm doing it, I am morally good. I do what is right, I do what is fair. I don't let anyone down. I always do the right thing. Thing. That's why when the apostles observed Jesus, though they obviously didn't understand everything he did, what they said at the end of his ministry is this, he does all things well. Whatever he did, he did well. He did well. And so he is, by his own statement, he is the good shepherd. It's interesting. This image of the good shepherd was precious to the early christians. Many of those early christians were martyred. They were thrown in the catacombs. And when they began to discover the catacombs, what they found most interesting was the most common motif on the catacombs was a painting that depicted Jesus as a shepherd with a sheep on his shoulder. And that was the most common painting the early christians had in those catacombs of their savior. Even though they were under great duress and even though they were under great persecution, they still knew the good shepherd cared for them, loved them, knew where they were, knew their name, and somehow or another was going to bring them through that experience. He is the shepherd who provides. Let me give you three thoughts before we go home this morning. I just want to try to lay this out as we think about his provision. Number one, as a shepherd, he governs his sheep. He governs his sheep. Now all of us in the room need guidance.
Someone said, good leaders are good learners. When you stop learning, you stop leading. As a leader, you should always be learning how to do it more effectively, how to do better the thing you do best. And one of the things that's incredible about our God is he is a God who is always willing to give counsel and advice. One of the greatest resources we have is a resource before us, which is his word. He will never violate his word. He will never go against the principle or precepts that you find in God's word. And he is a counselor that you can always rely on. And we need good counsel. We need good advice. That's why in James he said, pray for wisdom. If you ask for wisdom, I will not withhold it. I'll give it to you. One of the things, guys, I'll be honest with you, I pray for every day, is just wisdom. Wisdom. Sometimes wisdom's just described as horse sense. It's just knowing when to get out of the rain. Have you ever met anybody that had more degrees than a thermometer but had no common sense? I know people like that. Very smart, just not very logical. And I'm just suggesting you that you can be very, very intelligent, and you can be very, very credentialed, and you can have a very high iq, a very low EQ, and you can walk through life without a lot of wisdom. Knowledge will tell you what to do. Wisdom will tell you when to do. Sometimes you know what to do. You just don't know when to do what to do. And wisdom is the thing that tells you, stand up, sit down, speak up, shut up. Wisdom is that, governor, that you and I have in our heart and mind, and God will govern his kids oftentimes according to the wisdom that they possess. Now, what's beautiful about that, folks, is that God is willing to give us wisdom. He is willing to give us counsel, provided that we ask of him whatever you ask. John 14, he said, in my name. He said, that will I give.
There's a beautiful line and an old hymn, what a friend we have in Jesus. And the line goes this, like this. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Prayer is our access to God. Do you realize you have access to the shepherd this morning? You can walk right into his presence and you have access to the shepherd. You can find out what he desires for you. You can learn his heart. You have access. And not only do you have access, he's accepted you. He loves you. There's a beautiful verse in first John that says, he has made us accepted in the blood. I'm sorry. Ephesians one. He has made us accepted in the blood. God has accepted me. Why is that important? Because if you aren't accepting the fact God has accepted you, you'll go through life trying to prove yourself. You'll get into this performance trap of always thinking you're not good enough and you can never do well enough. And once you have, once you wrap your mind around the fact that your shepherd, your God, has accepted you, what you have to do is accept his acceptance of you. You have to say, Lord Jesus, you've accepted me. Now I receive you as my savior. I'm accepting your acceptance of me. And once you've accepted the fact that he's accepted you and you've accept his acceptance of you, the third thing you do is you accept yourself.
Now you have to say, okay, I'm not going to play pro football.
Not that that'd be important to a lot of you ladies, but I'm just saying you have to come to terms with, okay, certain things in my life are probably not going to happen. I'm okay with that. God didn't design me that way. He didn't wire me that way. I can accept that. I'm not outgoing, okay, I am outgoing. Okay. I'm accepting of that. I don't become envious of other people's gifts. Well, if I could sing like that, or if I could speak like, if I could do that, I could. No, you get comfortable in your own skin. You recognize the 133rd psalm is true. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God. Don't make junk. So you have to accept yourself. Because if you cannot accept yourself, you're not going to be free to accept anybody else. What did Jesus say in Matthew? He said, love your neighbor how? As you love yourself. Now understand he's not talking about some narcissistic weirdness where you like to. You know, Narcissus was the greek mythological figure that fell in love with his reflection in a pond. You ever known anybody like that? Enough about me. Now you talk about me, right? Just full of themselves. That's not what he's talking about. A self love just means an acceptance of who God made you to be, right? You're comfortable. All right, I've accepted who I am. This is how God wired me up. I'm trying to be the best version of me that I can be. But I understand God made me this way, and so I am. I'm comfortable in my own skin. All right, now track with me. God has accepted me. I've accepted his acceptance. I've accepted myself. Here's the fourth one. Now I'm free to accept you. I can accept you. The reason people don't accept other people is they've never accepted themselves. And they hadn't accepted themselves is because they hadn't accepted God's acceptance of them. And if they could just accept that they've been accepted and accept his acceptance and accept themselves, they could accept other people. Okay, we clear that up?
He governs his sheep. God monitors his sheep. He governs his sheep. Number two, not only does it govern his sheep, but he gauges. He gauges his sheep. He gauges his sheep he monitors, lovingly monitors how his sheep are doing. And in order to do that, he knows us truly. As I said a moment ago, he knows us by name. You read the 139th psalms, a beautiful description of how David is saying, God knows everything about me when I lie down and when I get up and what I go through each day of my life. You remember when Jesus was crucified and placed in the tomb? In John 20, verse 16, Mary came to the tomb, and instead of finding the tomb there sealed, she finds Jesus outside of the tomb. And the Bible says, in John 20, when Mary first saw him, she thought he was the gardener. She didn't recognize it was Jesus until, listen. Until he spake her name. And when Mary heard him say Mary, she responded, john 2016, and said, rabboni. Rabboni.
It's in the possessive form. Rabbi would be acknowledging who he is. Rabboni would be saying, my rabbi. So he speaks her name. She realizes, that's my rabbi. That's my savior. Jesus is alive. And what was it that convinced Mary when he spake her name? He knows our name. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. Jesus said, now, what's beautiful about it? Some shepherds would mark their sheep, making them unique. Do you realize you're a unique sheep? God didn't make anybody else quite like you. And maybe your spouse says, thank God, but he didn't make. There's nobody like you. You are unique in every way. Fearfully, wonderfully made. God designs you with a purpose in mind. There's nobody that can do exactly what you do, the way you can do it. And you're immortal until you complete it. And as long as you're here, you're not done. God has something for you to. You're unique, and God has wired you that way. He has something specific for you to do. And by the way, you never name anything. This is free. You never name anything you plan to eat.
That's just free.
God would not call us by name if he planned to consume us. He loves us. He has designed us on purpose. He does truly listen to Isaiah 40, verse eleven. God tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs, the little ones, in his arms. He carries them close to his heart, and he gently leads those who are with young. So what am I saying? He gauges us. You know, gauges are something that engineers will place on machinery so they can tell how the machinery is performing.
Do you realize, in your life and mine, they're gauges not unlike machinery. For example, we have pressure gauges you have pressure gauges. God has designed you to handle so much pressure. You need a little pressure. You don't need a lot of pressure. You need a little stress on the string. We heard these guitars play. You heard a keyboard a moment ago. What makes all those instruments work is the amount of stress that's on each string. Now, each string has a different amount of stress so that the instrument is in tune. Too little stress, and the music is dull. Too much stress. The music is shrill, so a good musician will tune that according to the sound. He gauges, she gauges the instrumentation. I'm saying God will gauge us. He knows how much pressure we can handle. He knows when we're under too much pressure. And so what you have to do in your own life is you have to monitor those gauges. What's your pressure gauge? Another gauge is your fuel gauge. Your fuel gauge. One of the things that will burn your fuel is worrying about tomorrow. Jesus said in Matthew six, don't worry about the things of tomorrow. You only have enough fuel to get you through the day. Now, that's a different translation. It's one I just gave you, but it means the same thing. He says, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Meaning you got enough fuel in your tank to take care of the challenges of today. But when you begin to worry about tomorrow, you're burning today's fuel on something you're not even there yet. Watch your fuel gauge. The reason that's important is just as you help others and minister to others, you have to be helped and ministered too. As you're giving out, you need to be taking in, simply because you cannot ultimately give what you do not have, if any more than you can come from where you've not been, you need to be replenished. If you're just a giver and you're never a receiver, eventually you're gonna be running on empty. You're gonna burn out. You're gonna go, I can't do this anymore. I got nothing left to give. And you're right, you don't. Cause you didn't. Watch the fuel gauge. So watch the fuel gauge. Sometimes you need a sabbatical. Sometimes you need the pause button on your life. Sometimes you have to say no.
And so I'm saying, watch the pressure gauge. Watch the fuel gauge. Another gauge that people run into is a temperature gauge.
Some of you are running hot. You gotta learn how to chill out a little bit. Take a breath, be careful. That's why we have so many road range instances all over the place, it's because people don't watch the temperature gauge, watch your speed. Sometimes the pace of life can absolutely cause you to do reckless things. Watch the pace of life. And here's the last one I'd give you, is watch the weight load.
Everything is designed to carry a certain amount of weight. If you drive a truck, you know, that truck can pull so much weight and no more. If you get on an elevator and you see that elevator, you'll find somewhere on that elevator is inscripted weight load. And if you've ever been like me, and you've gotten on an old elevator and it's full. Have you ever done the math?
I've done the math. I know where I am. She's about my size. So you're going around the elevator and you're trying to do the math. Make sure we're not tipping that weight load. Or you're going out across the countryside and you see one of those old country bridges, and it says, load limit. Same principle. Meaning the engineer structured it in such a way that it can handle some load, but it can only handle so much. God designed you and me to handle some weight.
There is some load that we need to carry. Let me prove that to you. Acts 1518. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. Now listen to this. To lay upon you no greater burden than the necessary things. Listen. God has designed us to carry a certain amount of load necessary. You get strong resistance training. You carry some weight. You push some weight. You pull. It strengthens you. God designs. But when you begin to push further than God's designed you, and you're trying to carry more than he's designed you to carry, you break those load limits. And I'm just saying, if you're sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you'll find that God is a good shepherd. He will gauge us. He will tell us, look, you need to chill. You need to back off. You're carrying too much. Here's a third thought I'd give you. He governs us. He gauges us. Number three. He guides his sheep. He guides his sheep.
There's a great old hymn. Savior, like a shepherd, lead us much, we need thy tender care. God will guide you. He will guide you. He will show you the direction of your life. Sometimes, as Paul learned in the book of acts, he shows us what we're to do by showing us what we're not to do. There is the restraint of the Holy Spirit. The restraint. For example, when you're teaching, some of you have already taught your kids how to drive. You remember that scary moment when you're teaching your kids how to drive and you go to a parking lot somewhere. Like, a lot of them come up here, for the love of God, to our church. And I'm like, am I clear to leave?
But they'll find a big parking lot like we have, and they're teaching their kids, which is fine, but they're teaching their kids how to drive. Let me ask you a question. What is the first thing you point out to your child before that car is ever put into park?
What do you point out to them? Brake pedal.
When I was in driver's ed, way back in the model ages and all that, when I was doing driver's ed, I noticed in our car we had two brake pedals.
I don't know if you guys had that back then. We had two brake pedals, and I noticed the driver's head guy in the front seat with me, he had the brake pedal, but there was no gas pedal.
And so I remember asking him, I said, you don't have an accelerator, just the brake. He goes, yeah. I said, why? He said, never needed the accelerator.
Never needed that. I had to slow these kids down, man. I don't have to speed them up. I got to slow them down. What's my point? My point is, sometimes God shows you his will. He guides us by his restraint.
By his restraint. He's not telling you no. He may be saying, not now. You can't handle this.
It's going to happen for you. It's going to be great. But I need to wait till you're at such a level of maturity where you can handle what I'm about to do for you. You're not developmentally ready for this. So he shows restraint, and then the other thing he'll show is released. Sometimes the spirit restrains, and sometimes the spirit then releases. Now you're ready. Go. Go. Do it. Do the thing I've called you to do. Get out there and get after it. Get busy. Go serve me. And I'm saying the wisdom you need to know when he's restraining and releasing his wisdom that he will give if you ask, and as you follow his leadership, he will guide you. He will guide you. I don't mean to sound kind of ethereal or weird about this, but I can tell you from my own personal experience. I've had times in my life where, as I've told you before, I knew what to do. I just didn't know when to do it. I'm kind of back to that, and when I sought counsel from a pastor friend of mine whom I had great respect for, he said, well, man, are you praying about it? Yeah, I'm praying about it. He said, then it's not time yet. He said, when it's time, you'll know. God will give you a sense in your own heart and spirit that it's time to do the thing that you're convinced you are to do. I said, okay. So that seemed to satisfy me. And I can't explain this. That's why I said, I don't mean to sound ethereal about this or strange. I can't really explain, but I'm just telling you how it worked for me. I really pray God I know what I need to do. I don't know when I need to do it. And I woke up one morning with this crazy sense of peace that now's the time to do it. It's weird. I just knew. I knew for a long time what I needed to do. I just didn't know when to do it. And I woke up one morning with just this peace of mind that it was time to do the thing that I felt God was leading me to do. You know why that's important? Because one of the things the shepherd does, and we'll learn this through the series, is he leads the sheep. He doesn't push the sheep.
If you're gonna move cattle, if you're gonna move cattle, you push cattle. You see the movies and the cowboys are all, yeah, moving the cattle. That's how you, you're gonna push. You push cattle. You get behind them. You push em. You know what happens if you push sheep? They scatter. They go everywhere. That's why the shepherd has to get in front and he leads the sheep. And as he leads the sheep, the sheep follow.
I've got a plaque in my office. It says, there they go. And I must hasten after them, for I am their leader.
Sometimes you have that. But most of the time when you're out in front and you're leading, the sheep follow. And that's how God designed. Here's my point, and I've given this to you before, but let me close with this. There's a difference between the devil pressuring you to do something and God leading you to do something.
When God guides, he will lead you to do it. When the devil interferes in the decision process, he will pressure you into doing it. Most people would tell you that if you've ever been pressured into a decision, whether it's a purchase or a relationship or a business partnership. The minute you start feeling pressured into it, be careful. You may be making a mistake.
You need to wait, hit the pause button until you feel led.
Not doing it because you feel pressured. Because God does not pressure his people. He leads his people. And according to Isaiah, he gently leads his people. He takes great care with which he leads us. So, friend, I would highly recommend you trust the shepherd this morning. If you don't know him as your personal savior, I hope you can walk away from this weekend saying affirmly, the Lord is my shepherd. Therefore, as I go through this week, I shall not want let's pray together.
Father, thank you for your word. As Isaiah said, you promise it never returns void. It always accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent. So, Lord, I thank you for your word. I pray it will be living word, rhema word in our spirit and hearts. And as James warned us, help us not just to be a hearer of your word, but now help us to be a doer of the word. When we break out of this holy huddle in just a moment, help us to put into practice something that we've heard taught today. Thank you for the time of worship. Thank you for the communion. Father, we pray you've received our worship. Thank you for the time we've spent in your word. We pray again for Israel. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And lord, I pray for any of my friends here watching online who may never have trusted you as savior, that this might be the moment when they humble their heart and just say, Lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin, be a reality in my life, and I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
